Lithuanian businessmen punished for criticism of Belarusian officials

The businessmen, who criticized business conditions in Belarus in Lithuanian mass media, have been deprived of license.

As the Lithuanian newspaper “Verslo Zinios” writes, management of the Lithuanian enterprise Tranzito Terminalas, running in Belarus, received a letter from the Belarusian Customs Committee. The letter informs that the company’s license is suspended from December 28, 2009, though it was issued in March 2009 for a period of five yeas.

Representatives of the State Customs Committee of Belarus refused to comment on the situation to Lithuanian journalists referring to lack of free time, the website DELFI reports.

The Lithuanian Embassy in Belarus promises to do the best in order the Lithuanian businessmen can stay in Belarus.

Tranzito Terminalas faced these troubles after the paper “Verslo Zinios” had published an article about problems of the company some weeks ago.

What did the paper write about?

The website charter97.org quoted the article. Here is the text:

Beautiful words: “Come to us, make investments, and we will help you and make things simpler for you”, have a different meaning “Come to us, make investments, take your share and be off”.

Tranzito Terminalas closed company which had been working in Belarus for 6 years and created a successful business, had a first-hand experience of that, “Verslo Zinios” writes.

In 2003 this enterprise decided to expand its market and start a business in Belarus. As the market is empty, the administrative basis is good and almost no competitors in Belarus, one could work and earn money without trouble, they thought. But it is no coincidence the market is empty.

But Lithuanians were joyous over success just a short while. An analogous Belarusian company which occupied 80% of the market, worked using 30% of facilities. That is why Lithuanians who worked “too good, caused too many problems”.

There were appeals heard to sell a part of the Lithuanian company and go away, as representatives of the state-run enterprise had to explain the reason of their low rates. However, Lithuanians refused to do that. And than the whole story started: their licence was limited, rental period was not extended and so on.

However Tranzito Terminalas company is not going to cede. The direction addressed Lithuanian Embassy in Belarus, high-ranking officials of Lithuania and Belarus, and they hope that the situation would be changed.

The investor has done his duty, the investor can go?

As the newspaper “Belorusskie Novosti” writes, in February 2003, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus registered Beltamozhtransit, a company with foreign investments, on an initiative of the republican unitary enterprise Beltamozhservis (Belarus). Closed company Tranzito Terminalas acted as a Lithuanian founder. The founders contributed $20,000 each to the authorized fund.

The enterprise started to attract transit cargo traffic in March 2004 in Babruisk and later in Maladzechna. Tranzito Terminalas invested Br760 million for preparation and start-up stages of the company’s activity.

The enterprise demonstrated high economic performance in 2004–2008. Revenue increased five times from Br625 million to Br3,419 million, profit showed a 10-fold growth (from Br-181 million to Br 952 million), profit margin reached 94% in late 2008. Capitalization of company’s assets was more than Br3 billion.

Beltamozhtransit started dividend payment in 2006. The sum of dividend amounted to Br1 billion in 2008.

As the enterprise was demonstrating high performance, the Belarusian co-founders started to suggest that their Lithuanian partners should withdraw from the company and sell its stake to the Belarusian party. “Since August 2008, these offers have turned into threats. We were informed on behalf of the Belarusian State Customs Committee that if we didn’t withdraw from the Company, the Company could face administrative pressure,” the says letter of Tranzito Terminalas to prime minister Syarhei Sidorski.

According to general director of Tranzito Terminalas closed company Eduardas Paulauskas, “This is the way how Belarus apparently understands foreign investments: an investor comes, invests his money, create an enterprise, work for five years, gives everything to Belarusian partners and goes off.”